1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a moving assist apparatus and a moving assist method, as well as a driving assist system.
2. Description of Related Art
As a vehicle comprising a plurality of traveling modes, as described above, a hybrid vehicle using an internal combustion engine and an electric motor as a driving source is known. The hybrid vehicle has, as the plurality of traveling modes, a first mode (EV mode) in which EV traveling only using the electric motor and stopping the internal combustion engine while not maintaining a charge storage amount in a battery is given priority; a second mode (HV mode) in which HV traveling using the internal combustion engine and the electric motor while maintaining the charge storage amount in the battery is given priority; and the like. Further, a moving assist apparatus including a navigation system and the like mounted on the hybrid vehicle may provide assistance, such as calculating a traveling route from a current position to a destination based on map information, road traffic information and the like and selecting a traveling mode applied to each section of the traveling route. For example, an example of a vehicle control apparatus having such a moving assist function is described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP 2009-12605 (JP 2009-12605).
In the vehicle control apparatus described in JP 2009-12605, an energy balance of the entire traveling route is considered for setting the traveling mode of each section of the traveling route such that a remaining amount of the battery that is a secondary battery becomes zero at the destination. However, if the traveling mode is reset halfway in a traveling section, that is, the traveling mode is replanned, a driver may feel discomfort when the traveling mode is changed halfway in the traveling section according to the remaining amount of the battery and the energy balance.
In addition, this issue is a common problem in the apparatus and method of allocating traveling modes to a target vehicle including a plurality of traveling modes of different energy balances.